Bengaluru’s DesignUp25 reimagines design as the power behind tomorrow’s economy

Bengaluru is set to host the ninth edition of DesignUp, India’s leading design and innovation festival, from November 3 to 5, 2025. The event, titled DesignUp25, takes on the theme “The Design Currency”, exploring how design functions as a generator of value, shaping trust, innovation, and behaviour across industries.

Across three days, global and Indian design leaders will lead workshops, long talks, lightning sessions, and panels on design’s role as a medium connecting technology, business, and human systems. The focus this year moves beyond aesthetics to how design operates as infrastructure: powering economies and influencing decision-making in an AI-led world.

The line-up features Archana Thiagarajan, Vice-President of Experience Design at Adobe, on building trust in the age of AI; Alex Skougarevskaya of Canva on AI-driven creativity; Janaki Kumar of JPMorgan Chase on orchestration in enterprise systems; and illustrator Catalina Estrada, who examines design’s power to restore dignity and voice. Also speaking are Fonz Morris, Mahima Chandak, Allen Shaw, David Dylan Thomas, and Noopur Datye.

One of this year’s highlights will be the Futures Challenge 2025, inviting young designers to imagine what “currency” could mean in 2050, whether trust, energy, reputation, or attention. The international jury is chaired by Thomas Küber and Andreas Wegner of Futur2 Studio, Berlin.

Since its inception in 2016, DesignUp has grown into one of India’s most respected independent platforms for design and innovation. Often described as “TED meets DesignIndaba, with the heart of a community festival,” it has shaped conversations across industries and championed the idea that design is not a cost, but a catalyst.